The lunch hour seems to be under more risk of disappearing whilst remote working than when employees are working in the office.
Liberty Games, a games room specialist has found that 41 per cent of workers are likely to work through their lunch break whilst working from home. Flexioffices found that 22 per cent of employees say they have too much work stopping them from having a proper break, whilst in the office.
Liberty Games said:
Despite the luxuries of being able to eat when you want, wear what you want and not having to tackle that dreaded commute, working from home, for some, can be very stressful. With almost all communications done through instant messaging and a 1,900 per cent increase in daily users on Zoom since lockdown began, instructions and tasks can be miscommunicated and end up taking longer than expected.
When at home, it’s almost too easy to forget your regular work schedule and work longer hours where work and life seem to merge into one. In fact, 41% of Brits said they often work through their lunch break when working from home.
However, it is not the workload that is hindering worker’s right to take a lunch break, but rather the ability to concentrate whilst remote working. Just under a third (31 per cent) find it challenging to concentrate working at home. A fifth (20 per cent) admitted to feeling less productive and 35 per cent get bored working at home.
The research also showed that 29 per cent of UK workers feel more stressed when remote working.
Playing games seems to be a way to reduce the stress of employees with 38 per cent saying this. The best games to help workers reduce their stress were puzzles (33 per cent), second is video games and the third was sports at 19 per cent. The most stressed-out city in the UK was not London but Cardiff, followed by Bristol and then Leeds.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
